A Different Path
by Kirizo
Summary: A choice is made different, a life is altered, and a new path is made. AU Story


**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto or any aspects of Naruto, I do however own any OCs and original ideas so please ask before using. Please and thank you! Now ON TO THE STORY!

"_Struggle is the father of all things. It is not by the principles of humanity that man lives or is able to preserve himself above the animal world, but solely by means of the most brutal struggle."_

The rain was falling as it eternally did, and yet now it seemed different. "You with the red hair, use this to kill him." A kunai fell with the rain and impaled itself into the ground. "If you do, I'll let this girl go free." The rain continued to fall, but all I saw was the girl that I had sworn to protect, no matter the pain, held in the hands of a madman. "Don't Nagato!!" I felt the rain endlessly slam into my skin, into my heart, and into my very soul. "Don't worry about me. You two get out of here!" Before he even said those next fateful words, I knew what would happen. I knew that my hands would be stained with the blood of my friend, my leader, my brother. "Kill me." He said with such great resolve, and yet with so much more sorrow and regret than these rain drops could ever bring.

Those words I said so many years ago, those words that I spoke to that man, the words that forever changed the three of us, they came back to me. 'I just want to protect them. No matter how much pain it causes.' Those words, they echoed within me, within my very being. "Nagato!" The shout brought me back, back to the reality I was trying to block out. "Don't do it!" I forced myself to ignore those words, I urged my body to pick up that accursed kunai. "You'd better hurry unless you want the girl to die!" My arms, they felt as if they were made of the heaviest of stone. I held it, that accursed blade, panting with exhaustion. Then it happened, the thing that forever changed me and my ways. The one I called my brother, he ran forth, grabbing my hand and with it the blade. He ran himself through on that blade, I felt his blood on my hands and breath on my face.

"You and Konan…you've got to stay alive somehow…" His words were interrupted by his coughing, his coughing that sent his precious life even closer to the Shinigami's hands and his blood onto my face. "…You…are…the…messiah. You…can…really--"And then he was gone, gone forever, and yet his blood and his body remained. I saw them, my parents, I saw their bodies next to his and yet unlike my parents, this time I could've stopped it. This time it was different and I felt something inside of me start to crack. The wall I had built it was breaking…and then I heard it, I heard the last thing the man who spoke it ever said, and the last thing that shattered my wall, my barrier, my control.

"Heh, what pathetic excuses for shinobi, Hanzo-sama shall we kill the--"The man never finished his sentence. A kunai had lodged itself in his brain before anyone could stop my hands. Over the pumping of the blood through my head I heard, somewhere in the background, Konan crying. I heard that madman, that monster, tell them to end me, to end my existence. My hands moved themselves as the rain of kunai fell onto me. They were batted aside like the flies they were. Then I was moving, moving faster than ever before. I appeared next to Konan, and watched as the insects fled. I saw the papers before they moved, shielded myself before they even touched my skin.

The explosion did nothing to me for I was invincible, this power I felt coursing through my veins….it was so intoxicating, so addicting, and so powerful. I was a god. "Not bad, kid!" I moved my gaze to see that monster's form through the smoke. "I'm surprised you were able to escape my fire attack!" The fool did not know he was speaking to a god. My face formed into a snarl as I leveled my gaze at him, no not him, it. I saw the look on its face and heard those whispered words. But before the god could strike down the monster, the insects interfered again. Did they not understand that only the two of them mattered in this battle? "Konan...hold on to Yahiko and stay put." Then once again my hands moved themselves and formed a sequence I didn't know while my mouth formed words I had no recollection of ever learning. "Kuchiyose Gedo Mazo!" I felt the beast's minds before it even emerged, before my hand even touched the ground. It was so vicious and…..hungry. As it emerged and roared to let everyone know who was here, those rods pierced my back and I let loose my own roar. I sent those things, those dragons forward and took those insects' souls.

That monster merely stood there watching. Then he did the exact opposite of what I had thought he would do. He threw off his cloak and prepared to fight me. "I will not run, not like that coward wants me to, no boy….I will show you true power." I laughed and forced my beast to lunge forward, to crush him once and for all. But then something happened….everything froze…all of the sky's eternal tears stopped moving. Then I watched as, within a second, the eternal tears froze and became an endless amount of frozen spears. For a second, just a second, it was so beautiful with the light flowing through them and for the first time in my entire life….I saw true tranquility and beauty. Then they flew forward spearing my beast in the ground. As they continued to fall, ignoring my beast's cries, I felt it hit me before the flash even appeared, I felt the lightning pierce me through the chest.

"Foolish child, did you actually think that you could defeat me?" As the monster spoke I fell to my knees, and then collapsed to the ground. How could I have been so stupid? Me, a god? No, the only god in this world is death. "I am Sanshouo no Hanzo, the man that gave the Densetsu no Sannin and the Densetsu no Shichi their names!" His words rang true inside of me, the Densetsu no Sannin….the Densetsu no Shichi…they were known as some of the world's greatest shinobi. How could I have let the Rinnegan control me so? Now…it is time for death to claim me…Yahiko….I'm sorry.

"Child, let me tell you something about power." What was this? Was this some gloating speech or something else? "True power can only be obtained through sweat and blood. Bloodlines such as your Rinnegan, they always have limits…always. Never rely on your Rinnegan again boy." Again….that would mean that there would have to be a next time. "Next time we meet child….face me with your own power." With that the monster was gone…the impossible had happened.

Now as I lay here, under the eternal rain, I look over to see my beast impaled and dead, Konan and Yahiko missing, and the dozens of shinobi I killed lying there, soulless. Then the darkness finally took me, and I was at peace.

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Okay, this was my first real story and so, unlike many of those pussies who only want compliments, FLAMES ARE WELCOME! Not only do they sometimes give constructive criticism they also do give the opinion of the reader which is the point of writing right? Well anyways, for those of you who have read Houses of the Holy, great story, yes I did use some aspects of HowdyU's Hanzo for my Hanzo. Also, for those of you who think I over powered Hanzo or made him godlike……c'mon he took on all three of the Sannin in their prime and a platoon of other jounin, look in the background of the ch.369 pg 11, without getting single scratch on him. Well enough of my ranting, yes the Densetsu no Shichi are something I created and will be explained and brought into the story later. Cya later!

P.S. Read The Unforgiven and Houses of the Holy or I will find you and inject you with venom of the Brazilian Wandering spider which, among other things, gives males such a massive erection that lasts for hours that it literally tears the muscles in your penis. This means you will never be able to get an erection again. FEAR MY WRATH!!!


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